Dell’s Alienware M11x has already earned a reputation as a solid gaming machine that weighs just about 4 pounds and has a starting price of just $700. While there are plenty of other 11.6 inch laptops on the market that are smaller and cheaper, none come with the powerful NVIDIA GT335M graphics for getting your 3D fragging on like the M11x.
But Dell launched the M11x just before NVIDIA introduced its new Optimus technology. So while the Alienware M11x actually has NVIDIA graphics and Intel integrated graphics, you have to manually switch between the two depending on what you’re doing. It looks like Dell could address that this summer by releasing a new version of the M11x with Optimus support. That means the computer will automatically switch between integrated and dedicated graphics depending on what you’re using your computer for, which should greatly improve battery life.
Notebook Review forum member Darkhan suggests that the laptop could also get a new Intel CPU at the same time. The refresh could come in late June or early July. But while Darkhan seems to know what he’s talking about, it’s probably safest to take anything you read in internet forums with a few grains of salt.
via Engadget
I wish they didn’t make it look like a kids toy, needs to look much better.
It’s a gaming laptop. Think of the target demographic and you’ll understand why we don’t have Thinkpads with gaming level GPUs in them. (Sad but true).
I agree with you 100%. I would have picked one up a long time ago but I could not bare the thought of my friends/coworkers seeing me with such a juvenile looking machine.
Yes, the machine would be used for more then just gaming. I would do some real work with it as well. So my ideal machine would look all business on the outside but be able to party hard on the inside.
I’ve had my eye on a 10″-11″ netbook for occasional ultraportable use for a while, but they all have only 600 lines of vertical resolution. I had considered the M11x despite the cost because it seems to be a good candidate to be useful for a longer time than traditional Atom powered netbooks with 600 lines vertical.
I’ve looked at the Dell Mini 10 but by the time I bump up the components so it won’t be obsolete by the time it leaves the factory, it costs almost as much as the 11x but w/o the discrete video adapter.
If they do give the 11x a refresh w/o dramatically increasing price, I will be hard-pressed to resist.
How did you step from a small 2.8lbs netbook to this 4lbs 11.6″…skip over the Acer 1410/1810, Dell 11z, Asus UL20, Lenovo U150, Toshiba 115 etc..?
None of those have a GT 335M. That GPU has about nine times the performance as the GMA 4500MHD commonly dropped in CULV notebooks.
Very true but like I said…he went from looking at a Dell Mini 10 to this beast of a GPU. There was a step missing in that story.
The obvious missing step was the HP Mini 311, Samsung N510, Asus 1201 (?), basically any ION netbook with a 9400M-class nVidia GPU and 1366 x 768 screen.
Why would anyone buy a laptop that looks like it is nearly three inches thick and had the ergonomics of a patio brick?
You can’t cram that kind of GPU in something really slim and sexy, I’m sorry to say. You’ll end up with a puddle of melted silicon, plastic and aluminum on your lap.
The reason this thing gets so much attention is because it’s the most powerful laptop in this small form factor. It can actually play games at acceptable frame rates, something almost no 11.6-13.3″ laptop can claim without also costing three grand.
It looks like 1980s Knigh Rider’s K.I.T.T. mated with a 1980s BSG Cylon…it is just really really really ugly looking.
I’ll agree with it being ugly. Personally I’d love to have this same sort of thing–ULV Core i5 or i7, GT 335M, Optimus, 12.1″ 1280×800 LCD–with the Studio XPS styling. Wedge shaped chassis, clean lines, different colors like the other Studio XPS guys. Call it the Dell Studio XPS 12x or something. I’d be all over it.
Alienware is just ugly, sadly.
They pretty much have to do this. nvidia isn’t going to support drivers for the old-style switchable graphics now that they’re seriously pushing Optimus.
The M11x with Optimus and a ULV Arrandale processor? I imagine we’d have a choice between the 1.06GHz i5-520UM, the 1.06GHz i7-620UM and the 1.2GHz i7-640UM. That’d be pretty awesome.
I just took the plunge a few days ago. I don’t think I have any regrets. Yet.
I think it’s a wicked laptop. Who else made something this small and this robust? Yep. Nobody. Let’s hope it does well and then you will get something prettier. Although, check out some videos of this thing and the different led colors you can get out of the keyboard. Pretty cool in my books. I mean I wouldn’t buy this, but it’s damn cool. I can’t knock it. Bow before it. Worship it. It glows in your favorite colors.